500,000 Books and CDs are Buried in a Landfill Deliberately by the City of Longueuil, Québec

La Presse

Tuesday, 13 February 2007
by Émilie Côté

500 000 livres au dépotoir

Paul Saindon, in front of the landfill site at Saint-Nicéphore where his 500,000 books and 30,000 CD disques were dumped.
Photograph Robert Mailloux,

La Presse

(Montréal)

Blogaulaire was book picking in a 'friperie'. He began discussing 'better' places (better prices)with the only other customer, a man searching titles next to him on the next shelf over. And then the guy told him about all these books being trashed on the South Shore, near Longueuil, Québec. So I am blogging this horrible story.

Yes, it is horrible and the City of Longueuil did not have to destroy this huge stock of music, literature, history . . . and who knows what other documentary treasurers! The city had possession of the material, the city was storing the entire lot on city property and decided, through its ultimate domain (and ignorance) to trash everything!

Paul Saindon had a bookstore on Chambly Road in Old Longueuil with a floor-space of 4,600 square feet. Saindon himself (Blogaulaire never visited it) describes the local as a bookmans 'Ali Baba Cave'. As is typical, the landlord raises the rent 25% after the first 5 years of operation and the bookstore owner finds cheaper digs, but smaller; in fact so small he cannot accomodate his stock.

The collection, which runs the gamut from the mid 19th centure to today and includes all the highs and lows of North American literature as well as music - - with all the greats of Québec culture represented in multiple editions and formats - - is left to the whims of an unsympathetic landlord and a city administration uncertain of its role, uncertain of anything it seems.

The city did pressure Saindon to claim his property after putting it in storage. When Saindon could not find a buyer and was unable to come into the municipal warehouse with enough helpers to sort the books, according to the City Clerk, nonprofit cultural associations in the area were offered the books free of charge.

The whole story suddenly becomes confused and cloudy. Interviews to track down who was offered what by whom seem full of contradiction. It does appear that Saindon was making an honest effort to save the collection by contacting community centres, cultural groups, probably the municipal libraries.

Whoever did or did not refuse the collection (which was a total mass of tumbling piles by now) the final decision was taken and acted upon. Everything was dumped like so much rotting refuse into the Saint-Nicéphore landfill dump and is now utterly beyond salvation.

Everything was carted off on January 29, 2007, which is close to the date that on the north side of the St. Lawrence River, Montreal was throwing George Butcher out of his apartment for stockpiling nearly 15,000 books and documents in his home. See the article HERE.

There is nothing yet that I can offer as a conlusion or summary to these stories. These situations are both personal and collective challenges in this and probably in your own community. I blog the news; I invite discussion. I will pick up this thread again.

Consider using the Google Language Tool to read the La Presse article in English if you find wading through the French text onerous. Just copy the address url of the title of this post into the 'Translate this page on the web' box under the language page options offered by Google. Most of the translation will be useful. Just prepare yourself for half a dozen 'false friends' between English and French. A couple phrases are real gems (I tried it) and you will have at least one hoot while you cry over the tragedy of this heritage being destroyed totally by mindless boobs who are paid by the public purse.

Another Harry Potter Appears in Mid-Summer

The Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling, which will be released in July 2007 ("A Midsummer's Night Dream" for booksellers I guess) might have side benefits for used book shops if it helps clear out the accumulated 'back list' most shops now hold in HP titles. Just buy one new title and put it in the middle of your display and see what that fetches for the surrounding dead pulp - that's my advice. (You aren't overstocked? Pardon moi.)

I really have nothing more to say, other than my pitch for carrying multilingual stock, especially in French, Spanish and German. So let us give a pitch in Espanol. (My Spanish 'language toolbar' is failing to perform on these 'n' accents, sorry!)



AP Spanish | 02/01/2007 |

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'
Associated Press

LONDRES - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', el último de los siete libros sobre las aventuras del niño mago, será publicado el 21 de julio, dijo el jueves la escritora J.K. Rowling.

Rowling anunció la fecha de la publicación en su página de internet.
Bloomsbury, su casa editora británica, dijo que publicará una edición de tapas duras de niños, una de adultos de tapas duras, y una edición especial de regalo y un audiolibro el mismo día.

Scholastic Children's Books, la casa editora en Estados Unidos, manifestó que ofrecerá una edición de tapas duras a 34,99 dólares, una edición de lujo a 65 dólares, y una edición reforzada para bibliotecas a 39,99 dólares."

Many New York City publishers are getting into their own Spanish editions for the 11 million Hispanophones in the North American continental market, so supplying the multilingual market is becoming both easier and a necessity. For used book dealers, it all depends on attracting a larger customer base by expanding your stock linguistically.

A word to the wise . . .

Oh, by the way, here at CPE we would like readers to point us toward an essay or two that compares the history of Latin American authors with UK authors 'getting the jump on' US fiction writers.¨Particulary in the genre of fantasy mixed with the quotidian (or 'magic realism'). Is not this half centuty of the English getting the jump on everyone in the genre of the pure fantastic worthy of deep thought and criticism? Tolkien and Rowling could compare, I believe, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in their respective cultural domains. Or do you think I'm out lunching on fish 'n' chips with this one? Please comment.

Do not forget that T. S. Eliot, the St. Louis boy, became a Brit and that Ezra Pound became a Euro-whatever to go on to become the last centuries central icons in poetry. Europe is having her revenge inside the pop markets of word an song I do believe, and over a span of 50 years: except in the confessional and grit lit. Please respond.

Helen Hill Memorial Website Media Mention

Family, friends and fellow community and cinema activists have been contributing to the pages on the webpage that links to this post's title.

The number of articles, website references and bloggers who have had something to say about the murder of Hill more than 3 weeks ago in NOLA is astounding. That someone makes the effort to pull those links together is commendable. Helen herself, I'll bet, if in her lifetime all that news coverage had highlighted her volunteer work teaching and feeding and offering support to pre- and post-Katrina residents of the Delta Region and New Orleans . . well people like Helen tend to just throw that stuff away so they can get on to the next challenge.

One focus of her impact on other people doing good volunteer work was in encouraging people in Halifax to pitch in after the flooding of NOLA. And when she lived there she influenced cinematographers to find community themes for creative experimentation with documentary film. If we started with the tens of blog posts listed on the HelenHill Org 'articles' page, it would be possible to document what it takes to pull one small community together. Was it Food Not Bombs that helped mobilize Halifax volunteers? Was it the filmmakers? Was it one individual?

In any case, thanks to the people who pulled those links together. Hopefully there will be some follow-up study and help us remember the motto: 'Don't Mourn, Organize!'